"I really haven't seen it as one of those historic, traditional Notre Dame rivalries," Kelly said on a conference call, according to the Chicago Tribune. "I've seen it as just one of those great football games that Notre Dame has played.

"I've been in Michigan a long time. I've always felt the Notre Dame-Michigan game was a big regional game. But in the Notre Dame history books, this game has (been) played, but obviously there have been some years where it hasn't been played for a number of years."

To be fair, Kelly spent 17 years, including 13 as head coach, at Grand Valley State and was at Central Michigan for three seasons, so he has seen his share of teams led by the likes of Lou Holtz, Bo Schembechler, Gary Moehler and Lloyd Carr.

And it's not like the teams have played every year since their first meeting in 1887. In fact, Saturday is the 41st meeting, and Michigan leads the series 23-16-1.

Perhaps this was just a retort to Wolverines coach Brady Hoke, who said in May (to a group of Michigan fans) that Notre Dame was chickening out of the Michigan series. Hoke later clarified those statements, but he didn't back away from them.

"Everybody knows the challenges we have as an independent when it comes to scheduling," Kelly said. "We're a team that a lot of people want to play, including Michigan, obviously, or Brady wouldn't comment in that regard."

With Big Ten expansion and Notre Dame adding five Atlantic Coast Conference teams to its schedule down the road, the Irish backed out of 2015 and 2017 games with Michigan. There are no other games scheduled between the two historic programs.

Kirkland Crawford also writes for the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett property